


Endstream

by Frightened_Stars



Category: DreamSMP, dreamteam - Fandom, fourmuffinteers
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Canon-Typical Violence, Clay | Dream Angst (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, George uses Dream’s real name but that’s in later chapters, Happy Ending, Hurt Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Hurt GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Hurt/Comfort, I can talk like right in here, Injured Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Injured Georgenotfound (Video Blogging RPF), Long-Haired Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Mental Breakdown, Mentions of Death, No Slash, Overprotective Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), POV Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Panic Attacks, Sapnap is the real MVP in this book, The End (Minecraft), The Nether (Minecraft), The OCs are background characters and villains, his hair grows longer I’ve the course of the book lmao, i’m new to ao3 I was a wattpad baby please, oh did I mention this is angsty, tagging in this website is so fun, these tags are so fucking weird
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:28:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28267632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frightened_Stars/pseuds/Frightened_Stars
Summary: The End is growing into the Overworld slowly but surely inside a populated Minecraft realm.There has been notice of end stone replacing dirt, slowly consuming what was once in its path. A surge of enderman spawn rates skyrocket and bases decrease in size as they steal its structure. Residents painstakingly mine down random obsidian pillars beginning to appear on their landscape.It spills over the edge when there's been sightings of an enderdragon spotted not too far from Spawn. It's up to the Dream Team to defeat it, and to figure out what's happening to their home.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 75





	1. Prologue

Chaos usually never happens in this room. There were order and civil conversations. No chairs shook with the sudden effort of someone standing up to accuse another. The guards didn’t have to be on high alert or step in front of someone to block them from getting physical. They never had to have a tight grip on their weapons.

The tension was supposed to be unspoken here. Now it was freely said off with the knowledge of a man’s future being held in their hands. A man whose hands were tied with chains behind his back and his mouth hidden behind a leather cloth. Nothing could be heard from himself, he was the only person with words to spare in the room. Everyone was wasting their own on useless arguments.

“Enough!” a higher-pitched voice sliced through the air like a sword.

The erupted sounds ceased. They were falling into small mumbles, but the words were being carried away by a draft. The woman who overpowered stood high in front of her chair. Her sharp, intelligent eyes weren’t on anyone who was speaking though, she was focused on the tied man. Her hands flipped open a file that was on top of the table containing the documented situation and read through it.

“Caleb Andico,” he lazily lifted his head at his name, “you have been caught at the Spawn Portal smuggling a large number of items from a modded realm. Among these include two Pandora Boxes, a recipe for a Big Bertha blade, a recipe for an obsidian chest plate, and a Prince spawn egg, This is a crime that is unacceptable and severely dangerous for the residents of our realm. Please explain to me and the rest of the team why you have decided to do this.”

One guard had the decency to walk up behind him and untie the leather around the back of his head. He coughed at the disturbed dust that danced around his face. There was no emotion in it. No fear, no anger, no tears. Just solid stone. He wasn’t afraid of any outcome that could happen.

“Miss,” he rasped out, “those items haven’t been returned through the portal yet.”

Her eyes narrowed, “I am aware of that. We are working to find their proper realms, so honesty is appreciated. Now please, this is your time to speak for yourself and that doesn’t have a correlation with you currently. Use it wisely.”

This whole issue correlated with him.

“This trial system is so unbelievably unorganized. The people working in my favor are being bribed by half of your staff.” he continued.

“They were all silenced by myself. No one here was bribed, Caleb, they have the right to their own opinion,” she crossed her arms, “Tell me why you’ve smuggled modded items from another realm. This is your last chance.”

“...I was smuggling to help people.”

“There were others involved with this?” her eyebrows raised.

“I was doing this for the realm, your realm, our realm. I was helping them. People who are unfortunate enough to be paired with more powerful residents are not enjoying their life here. To make equality, they need help from an outside source. Modded stuff could do that, but you kept denying my suggestions so I took it into my own hands to help. You’re leaving them to rot under more successful people.”

“We can find other ways to help them without using mods. We already have a shelter program running at Spawn regarding this issue,” she said.

“It’s not helping!” Caleb snapped, “These people live in fear to go outside of Spawn because of how unskilled they are. Your system is corrupted. These people need mods so they can have the same equality as other people. You know they can’t choose and pick whichever realm they go to!”

The other moderators in the room had started to stir again. Their voices were rising to a slight irritation of confusion and anger, riling against each other once more. One of them called out to Caleb.

“This is a little to no modded district! We can’t bring items like those in here while still calling ourselves part of the same area. Besides, what would happen when people who don’t need these items start abusing them for their own advantages?”

“Then we’ll use IDs as we do with potions. Those can track what their performances are like outside of Spawn when checked in,” he said sharply.

A different person spoke, his voice dripping with the weights of time. It still wasn’t enough to extinguish the intended fire in his voice. Caleb thought that wisdom had been worn by the older man.

“People apparently can still bypass laws that are placed to protect people. If we introduce this new concept, then there are going to be a lot more rules that need to be put in place. IDs for potions have been around Minecraft for centuries, so they’re used to the idea”

“That’s how more people get hurt, standing by and watching, you’d be causing harm. You seriously won’t make a change just because it'll mess up tradition?” he asked the moderator.

“It’s not that. These people haven’t complained about this at all. This would just grow complicated for no necessary reason. We won’t need to take action on this if there is no public outburst,” the owner spoke above everyone else, trying to regain control of the room again.

“Because they’re afraid! They're afraid to tell you because of how you turn away from them before they get to speak. These people risk their lives to go out of Spawn and get food because they’re too poor to afford the things in it. With mods, they won’t have to be afraid anymore! This realm is filled with poorer people who can’t leave the realm because of how much it costs to move. I’d rather steal from other realms and save our people that stay low modded and helpless! ” Caleb now started to crack with a hint of desperation.

She stared at him. His body was hunched forward with his black hair falling in tangled locks down his face. It was clear he hadn’t shaved in a few days, too distracted with everything that was happening to him. His amber eyes behind the strands were staring back at her, silently pleading for an agreement. Both guards had a hand looped around his arms during his tangent ensuring he’d stay still.

The owner sighed, her shoulders heaving with the effort, “No. I’m sorry. We can’t allow mods in here. That’s final.”

Caleb visibly sagged with the defeat. It was like watching a balloon deflate with its pride and dignity. Everything that it had was suddenly gone from its grasp into the atmosphere. If he weren’t being held up he probably would’ve dropped to the floor. He knew more than anyone else in the room that this was only the beginning of his downfall.

She turned to look away from him to her staff. Some eyes were on him, others on her, and the rest towards some distant point in the room as they tried to block out this whole situation from their sights. She didn’t blame them, having a thought-friend of theirs caught doing a precarious crime must feel so betraying. This also hurt her, but she still had to treat him like any other offender currently to pressure moral justice.

This must’ve hurt Daniel a lot more though. She turned to him. It was hard to see what expression he was conveying due to the sunglasses hiding most of his face, but a thin line between disappointment and anger shrouded him. The two were close, but it was obvious that the man didn’t have any clue about this arrangement after a short interrogation with him a day prior.

“Caleb Andico will be removed from his place in the moderation team,” she announced once more, “The minimal punishment for this illegal act is around three years of banishment with the maximum to be lifelong. Due to how severe the items found were, my thoughts for a reasonable time will be twenty years of banishment from this realm”

That caused a spark of surprise among half of them and a contented hum from the other. Daniel remained silent. He most likely wasn’t paying attention to her words. Comfort from ignoring the truth, or rather just not acknowledging it.

“Miss,” a staff member that was beside her was puzzled, “are you- are you certain about this? Twenty years seem a bit..much for smuggling.”

“He was carrying two Pandora’s Boxes. Those could have ruined our realm if he opened them. Now, is there any disagreement with my sentence provided?”

Silence responded to her. She sighed with a tinge of relief at the lackluster inside the room and closed the files. It ended the case. She looked over to the guards behind Caleb, nodding to them respectively in a form of thanks. Her order to take him outside the room was imminent.

Hands wrapped around his shoulders and tugged backward. His head jerked like a puppet on strings, forcing him to see the unwelcoming glares he received from what was once his co-workers. Caleb’s eyes connected to Daniel’s, clinging onto the memory of the sunglasses like a lifeline and storing it into his mind. No words escaped either of them. There wasn’t any to say.

Next to the sunglasses, he thought out an apology for hurting him like this. Not for the items he stole, though. He wouldn’t apologize for that. He’d apologize for stealing all of their shared dreams that he took from them. That was his only regret about all of this. Nothing else.

His life stripped away from him as he was dragged out of the meeting room. Still, he didn’t beg for mercy or attempt to fish out a lie that could save him. He let himself have his achievements and future goals fall further into the void of no return. He will never beg or apologize for something he knew he did right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow @frightened_stars for more Endstream and DreamSMP content.


	2. Chapter 1

“Are you sure you’re cooking it right? That one side looks burnt.”

“George, I’m a professional, I know what I’m doing.”

“Doesn't look like it. You almost set your clothes on fire.”

“...I’m close to a professional.”

Sounds of familiar voices encouragingly guided Dream into a conscious state. His head swarmed close to the edge of a headache. It’s like it was drilling a nail directly through his skull and scoring a touchdown with his brain. He barely remembered what even happened last night.

He groaned at the feeling, pulling his hands up to free himself from the comfortable warmth of the sleeping bag up to his face. The light intruded through his eyelids and forced him to wake up. His fingers shielded the rising sun and grudgingly opened them to see his friends sitting around a crackling fire.

“Hey, humpty dumpty’s awake,” George’s voice, low as it can be in the morning, reached out to him again.

Dream carefully pushed himself up onto his forearms and let the sleeping bag slide down his torso. He ran a hand through his hair but paused as he felt fabric around his forehead that just barely embedded into the strands of dirty blond locks. Knowing they were bandages made him wince. They covered his right eye, blocking anything coming from that side of his body.

“What...happened last night?” his speech was softer than usual, anything higher would rack his brain like bells.

Sapnap pushed around at some food with a stick which was cooking over the fire. He gave Dream a sympathetic smile with a split lip. He didn’t remember him having that cut last night either.

“How much do you remember?” he asked him.

His eyebrows furrowed as he tried to think. He didn’t recall much with the amount of fog that was swirling around him. There were blurbs of him running, a flash of purple, screaming, and fuzzy spots growing in his vision. That was it, and it wasn’t very reassuring.

He tilted his head towards his shoulder, slightly confused, “Not much.”

“Well, you slipped and fell trying to run away from an enderman. George and I had to come in and save you but you looked like you hit your head pretty hard. We’re not sure but you might have a concussion.”

Dream sighed and circled his temples, “So, do I have a-”

“Yeah, right across your eye,” George interrupted him, “If I had to be honest, it was kind of bad when I was wrapping it. Your attractive points dropped a bit if that was what you’re worried about.”

“Thanks,” he mumbled as he carefully tried to slide himself out of his sleeping bag.

The grass under his hands was wet with dew. It was cold and unforgiving, but refreshing at the same time. He tugged on his hoodie strings to tighten the hood collar around his neck. His movements were clumsy and slow, definitely a symptom of a concussion. He didn’t even try to stand up with the knowledge that he would just fall over if he tried.

Scooting his way over to the fire, he eyed his mask next to George. There was dirt smeared across the front of it and disfigured the black smiley face graphic in the grain. What made him the most upset was that there was a crack that split the right eye to the edge. It most likely matched the scar across his face.

This was the first enderman scar that he got on his face. Usually, his mask can block attacks to it but this one must’ve had a good hit on him. There were dozens of cuts and scars that illuminated a purple glow on his chest and arms. There wasn’t a lot of fabric or armor there that could protect him. It was too restricting anyways for quick reactions.

Which was another thing that was confusing if he had his mask on. His eyes would’ve been covered. He didn’t even remember taking it off, which maybe he did because of the state he was in.

“Did I even take that off?” Dream gestured to the mask.

George took a peak at it as well, “No. I don’t think so. It was attacking you even with it on. Maybe it just..aggroed when you turned towards it.”

Well, then this situation is just getting worse. If they aggro without even looking into their eyes that’s something seriously worth reporting. Maybe they should enforce more precautions outside of Spawn, or at least heed some warnings on discoveries.

His head lolled to the side so he could stare at the fire. It’s intrinsic flames blazed among the logs placed below it, which was wide for an area that had so few trees. He hated plains biomes, there was no cover to hide despite the one tree Sapnap and George decided to shelter them all under. Good to know that meant they were close to Spawn.

There was foil propped up onto a thin iron slab, protecting some sort of meat that Sapnap kept poking at. A lopsided smile fell on Dream’s face as he tugged his legs in to cross over themselves and watched him. His stomach gnawed as he realized that he was pretty hungry for breakfast.

“What even is that?” he asked.

Sapnap cast him a look, “Mutton. We saw sheep down by the river, got one down.”

“Oh.” he tried to stifle his amusement, “So, you two actually can get food while I’m out?”

“Hey, asshole,” George called to him, “We’re letting you eat this. We can easily just not feed you. You’re the one injured.”

“You wouldn’t starve an injured man.”

“We can with no remorse if it’s you.”

“Ouch,” Dream frowned.

The flames licked around at the foil as Sapnap hooked the stick around it. It was dragged across the slab slowly towards him, which he picked up with two fingers and set on the ground. He hissed out multiple profanities, shaking his hand to soothe the burn.

“Why don’t you have gloves?” he asked, reaching over to tear off a piece of meat.

He popped it into his mouth as his friend responded, “I didn’t bring gloves. Didn’t think I’d be the one making a fire.”

“Well, I didn’t think I’d get attacked or almost split my head open but here we are. Also, that is burnt on the side. Should’ve just woke me up and let me do it.”

That earned a snort from George.

He tried to sit more comfortably on the ground, but no matter what position he tried just made it worse. This wasn’t his first rodeo. He had concussions before and all of them were equally not fun. The worst part of one was just a constant feeling of dizziness and slurred speech.

Half the time Dream wouldn’t understand what was coming out of his mouth. Thank god this one seemed minor. The other two would kill to see him in that state despite the problems that could cause. He had great friends.

Leaning to his right, George made grabby hands towards the piece of foil. Sapnap pushed it over to him with his stick and set it down next to him. He twisted his body to grab the leather backpack that was planted beside him. The flap opened and he dug through it with one hand and his other pulling at the food.

A compass and a map were pulled out of it. The yellow-colored paper was folded a couple of times and torn around the edges. It did them good for the entire trip so far, so it didn’t matter what condition it was in. The needle inside the compass was steadily pointing behind George. It was heading towards 0,0, where all pointed to. Unless, of course, if it was modded, then it’d point towards a person.

“Okay,” he glanced back and forth between the compass and the map, “we still need to go east to make it back. Maybe a bit northeast.”

Sapnap hummed, “Think you can tell how long until we get there?”

“Not too long. It should take thirty or forty minutes, but we’ll have to go a bit slower for him.” George nodded towards Dream.

“We can keep going at the same pace as before. I don’t want to stall us longer than I already have,” he snatched another piece of mutton.

“Yeah, well, we don’t want you to get hurt more than you already are. So we’re gonna go easy. No stupid races this time, alright? Finish eating so we can get going, you need that checked out.”

He had to be honest, George gets motherly around both of them whenever they get hurt. It didn’t matter how big or small the injury was, he was there to willingly fix it up. Dream found it funny in some ways and appreciated it a lot in others. Someone had to be the one in their group to clean up after their recklessness after all.

Yeah, it was vital for all of their group to know medical procedures, but George actively spends the time to do so. He memorized potion recipes and how to handle different injuries from different kinds of mobs. Just on this trip alone, they had to use all of their potions on various injuries and tense situations. It was becoming harder to be resourceful with the situation increasing significantly as it was.

They finished up their breakfast and doused the fire with one of their water bottles. Dream watched from the ground, kind of helpless, as his friends crushed the embers and cleaned up the things they staked out in. The least he was able to do was roll up his sleeping bag and attach it to the straps on top of his backpack. He also grabbed his mask and skimmed his hand across the mask before also putting it into the main pocket. His head didn’t need any more weight to it currently. He pulled the straps around his body and through his arms, adjusting them on his shoulders.

A queasy feeling consumed him at the thought of having to stand, let alone walk. He tried to take a deep breath and stared up at Sapnap who just finished pulling his backpack onto his back.

“Hey, can you help me up?” he asked him, holding out an arm.

The dark-haired gave him a concerned look but grabbed his hand. He was gentle, wrapping his other arm around his waist to pull him onto his feet. Even though he went slow, the world spun onto its side. The grass and sky blurred together. Mixing new colors that he never even imagined he’d experienced before. It was something, but Sapnap, fortunately, had the strength to catch him before Dream fell over.

“Jesus, are you okay?” he asked as he tried to steady him.

He blinked rapidly, trying to get his vision back in focus, “Uh, yeah- yeah. I’m fine. Sorry.”

George’s voice was also dripping with concern as he spoke, “Are you sure you don’t want to wait a bit? It’s going to be a long way back for you.”

Dream swallowed down any nausea threatening to build and pulled himself away from Sapnap. He moved his hand from his waist to his shoulder though to hold him still. It was keeping him down to earth.

“I’ll be fine. We can take breaks on the way.”

Both of them seemed hesitant to agree to that but there wasn’t much they could do. They were running a bit late and the toll operators would be wondering where they were at. Their checkouts of Spawn said they’d arrive back last night, which wasn’t, clearly, an option at the time due to sudden problems that came up.

They had twenty-four hours before a search party was sent after them. It clearly wouldn’t take that long but the added paperwork the operators had to do in the leading hours up to sending a team out wasn’t worth it. Also because they had to pay one diamond as a fine, which added up with each hour that went by. They were overdue with seven of them after yesterday’s midnight, which they could stray away from eight if they were quick enough.

“Okay,” George said slowly, pulling his goggles down over his eyes, “lets ride.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow @frightened_stars on Instagram for more Endstream and DreamSMP content.


	3. Chapter 2

He might’ve underestimated exactly how hard it was to walk over two miles with a concussion. Usually, whenever he got one he was either knocked out until he woke up in a hospital bed or was being handled by someone else. Now he had to use his legs and stagger over different, harsh terrains. Of course, Sapnap or George to support his weight.

The only big issue they came across was a split in the ground. A ravine. Normally they would all have been able to jump across it without thinking too much, but they had to find a way to go around it. The stone inside it was entwined with endstone snaking up the walls. The sandstone color stood so out of place inside a greener biome. He felt himself constantly glancing at it, an odd wave of disappointment and guilt as he realized they needed to report this so it could get replaced with something more natural.

Endstone was becoming close to being called a common material. It wasn’t useful for anything, and Dream honestly didn’t think it looked all that pretty, but it’s endangered state was coming to an end. 

They stopped twice due to Dream’s complaints about wanting to keep moving. He didn’t want to waste their diamonds that they only just got. His head was swarming with bees, and everything was hurting the longer they trekked. So, when he saw the towering buildings that made up Spawn, his brain screamed with relief at him.

“Oh my god,” he huffed out, “about time.”

George, who traded places with Sapnap a few minutes before to hold him up, glanced up at him, “You hanging in there?”

‘I’ll be alright for the meanwhile. Can you grab my mask out of my backpack?” he asked him.

He felt him shift his arm from his lower part of his back to the top of his shoulders. The flap reopened and the heaviness got relatively lighter as he slid the cherished object out of it. He tapped his right shoulder for Dream to grab and pull over to his front. He pulled his arm up from where it draped across George’s neck to untie the green ribbon.

“Careful putting it on,” Sapnap warned from ahead of them.

“Yeah, yeah,” he responded, wiping off the dirt on it.

Dream never really liked showing his face off to the public. It was something he just never was exactly fond of, and honestly, he kind of liked the anonymity it portrayed about him. Now with the new slash on his face, he was refraining any thoughts about going out with his mask off. The mask had been with him for a couple of years, probably from the beginning of when he joined this realm. That was quite a while ago.

Some sunlight spilled through the crack of the mask as he tried to properly fit it on without dwelling into a deeper headache. He was still kind of irked since this was the first bit of visible damage it took despite all its been through. It wasn’t big enough to show any of his face, but enough for a few strands of hair to get stuck in it.

He tied the ribbon around the back of his head, keeping it loose to avoid any trouble. It was going to be a rough couple of days if he was going to be outside at all. His arm fell back onto George’s shoulder blades harshly. There wasn’t much he could do about it now.

____

Dream’s gaze averted from watching Sapnap take the eight diamond bill from the toll operator when her eyes looked over to him. The vulnerable image of him leaning against George like he was a lifeline bothered him. He was always seen as an independent sort of person, no need to be supported like he was here. It must’ve been a sight for the other people checking out. Possibly even discouraging them to go.

It’s been a while since he was seriously injured outside of Spawn. A lot of the times he was just returning with cuts and bruises, nothing that needed him to be sent to the hospital immediately. Honestly, he hasn’t even been to the hospital for over a year now, so it was a long time.

Sapnap’s smile reflected in the eyes of the operator as he clutched the bill tightly in his hand. He turned around and walked back to them both, his eyes were scanning the paper. The corner of his lips tugged downwards when the girl couldn’t see his face anymore.

“So, the diamonds are due in three days,” he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Dream kicked some loose stones that were on the ground as George responded, “Sounds about right. Let’s hurry up, I just want to get him to the hospital and then go home. I’m tired.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Sapnap tucked the piece of paper into the side pocket of his backpack.

Entering inside Spawn was always something that could never get old. The vastly colorful and different architecture of each building swirled around the three of them. They were all made up of contrasting materials too. Things like bricks, spruce, and stone were all embedded into the work of designers that were given the permit to build on these respective lands.

It was the only blooming hotspot of life here with all of it was centered around the Spawn Portal at 0,0. The thing that allows residents to travel from realm to realm. It wasn’t the portal itself that was astonishing, more or so the thing that could’ve been uncovered behind it. The way the universe created this sort of transportation system that connects all sorts of people from different worlds was the thing Dream thought was incredible.

He could never consider himself a builder, but he always appreciates the hard work they put into this place to consider it home. The least he could do was try and protect it for the residents who live here or the tourists who stop by from other realms for a few days at a time to enjoy new scenery. He didn’t blame them, this place was nice.

The hospital didn’t have anything to it that made it stand out. The only difference it had to the other buildings was that there was a sign hanging low on the doorway with a red cross painted on it. It was welcoming, nothing too intimidating or gruesome that would scare people off. The people inside of it only made it homelier.

“Is Bad in here?” George called out as they stepped foot inside, the bell at the head of the door announced their arrival.

There was a sound of things clattering and a soothing voice that followed, “Um, yeah! Come in!”

Sapnap and George guided Dream through a short hallway into a larger room. The floorboards creaked and groaned under their feet, stirring up whispers of the past. The material that this was made out of wasn’t anything out of style, but definitely not updated with newer things. There were some newer additions though, things like overhang lanterns and stripped wood kept the place pristine enough.

In his honest opinion though, he liked how the people who work here kept it how it was over the years. Usually when people come here, they’re in a vulnerable state, so seeing something familiar was nice. Thank god it looked like nobody else was here though.

Past the corner showed Bad pulling potions and herbs on and off the shelves. Those white eyes of his were narrowed in concentration as he scanned the label of each one before putting them in respective places. A tail swished happily from under the gray and red cloak he wore as he turned to greet them. Two horns poked out from the lip of the hood, straight past the black hair that curled around them.

“Hey! What are you guys doing he- oh my god!” Bad’s expression drastically shifted once his eyes landed onto Dream’s form.

“Ah, yeah, we need some help,” Sapnap sheepishly responded.

He immediately swiped one of the potions that he put on the shelf, the red liquid swirling inside the glass as he shook it. Health potion. Of course. Those tasted extremely nasty when drinking them. He pointed to one of the beds that was resting in the corner of the room.

“Put him there, oh my god-” he said again, sounding more exasperated than anything.

His friends maneuvered him across the room so that he could sit on the bed. Sitting down never felt more enjoyable than now. Someone’s hands reached to untie the ribbon around his head and pulled his mask off of him. The one eye that wasn't wrapped under the bandages narrowed against the light spilling into it.

“Ow?” he mumbled.

Bad placed the mask onto the small, wooden stand next to the bed along with the health potion. He frowned down at him, studying his face before reaching to untie the bandages. He found where they met together and gently attempted to loosen them.

“What were you muffinheads doing to even get him like this? Didn’t you say you guys were going out on a mining trip a few days ago? Those are hardly even dangerous for you guys!”

“Well,” George sat down at the foot of the bed, “we were coming back from it when we had a run in with an enderman last night.”

Sapnap and George set down their backpacks by their feet. It took Dream a bit more time and help to get his own off onto the ground but he managed. 

“And it just...attacked you?” Bad asked, confused.

“Yeah, but we all had our eyes covered. I wonder if they’re evolving to just aggro without even making eye contact,” George said.

The medic winced, “I surely hope not. This whole issue is terrible already, we really don’t need constantly hostile endermen after us now.”

He fully pulled the bandages off of Dream, discarding them somewhere where he couldn’t see. His head was lifted by Bad’s hands, forcing him to show the wound that was on full display. It must’ve been glowing a royal purple by now since it was left practically untreated.

“You left it like this all night?” he hissed to them, grabbing the potion and popping the cork off of it.

“Hey, there wasn’t much we could’ve done. He was out cold and weighs about ten tons,” Sapnap cut in.

Dream didn’t say anything to that, considering he couldn’t. Bad had tilted his chin up further and pushed the flask to his lips, baby-feeding him the red liquid. It burned the back of his throat with that terrible aftertaste which he despised whenever drinking a health potion. He jerked away, forcing himself to swallow and resist the urge to spit it back out.

His face contorted in disgust as he spoke, “You don’t have any regeneration? Those taste..at least a little better.”

“Well, we’re running out of ghast tears to make those and this should’ve been treated hours ago. I know you can live without one for now.”

As Bad pulled away from him, he could feel the scab on his face mold and shape back into itself. It was probably a bit ghostly to see for Sapnap and George, his skin was just fixing itself back up in a period of seconds unlike the days it would usually take. He could also feel some other cuts and scrapes -which he didn’t know he had- tingle as they rehabilitated themselves.

It didn’t fix completely. Health potions weren’t the magic that takes away any physical trauma inconvenience that you find on yourself and make them disappear. It just closed the cut into a sort of disfigurement, something that’d stay permanent due to the heightened healing that was put on your body.

Enderman scars were different, though. If you were hit hard enough by one with their claws, you’ll have a mark for the rest of your life. It wouldn’t be hard to tell you were attacked by an enderman either with the purplish hue it takes on. Some people find them pretty and others are mortified by the color manifesting on their skin.

“Okay, Dream? You’re going to head back home and get some rest for the next few days. Just- take it easy and don’t do anything too rough,” Bad told him, discarding the empty potion bottle into a metal duvet attached to the side of the wall.

“Yeah, got it,” he responded with a sigh.

The medic turned to look at his two friends, “You got that as well? Watch him, please. If anything changes you can let me know.”

“Yep, thanks for putting up with us again,” Sapnap stood up and stretched before grabbing his backpack and pulling it over onto his shoulders.

Bad broke into a soft smile, losing the stern look that couldn’t possibly stay on his face for that long, “I’d do it again, as always.”


	4. Chapter 3

“Watch yourself,” George had warned, his hand squeezing Dream’s arm.

He clumsily stepped through the doorway of their home, barely remembering to lift his foot over the wooden stop. His mask was held tightly in his hand by the lime-colored ribbon, swinging around like a deadweight. He pulled it off moments prior.

The walk back from downtown Spawn wasn’t as bad as the hike there, but it still wasn’t pleasant. There were a few other people who recognized him as they walked through the streets, and of course they couldn’t contain themselves to ask a few questions. Dream understood that they were only concerned for him, but his head hurt and he felt overwhelmed trying to process what was given to him.

“This sucks,” he hissed, “I can’t do anything for a week.”

Sapnap followed them inside, “Good. Don’t need you waltzing around without being fully recovered.”

“Shut up,” he snapped at his friend, punching him in the shoulder as he brushed past them both.

“Ow! Damn, okay. Just trying to look out for you, man,” Sapnap laughed.

They followed him into the common area where a friendly surprise had greeted them all. A brown tabby cat perked up from the couch planted in the middle of the room. She mewled at the sight of them, rubbing her face against the arm and causing a soft smile to breakout on Dream’s face.

Sapnap walked by Patches, giving her a nice scratch behind her ear before heading into the open kitchen. He dropped both of their backpacks onto the dining table there and tugged his bandana off his head. His ebony colored hair puffed as it fell out of the tight pull it was in.

It was cozy, a few bookshelves to the corner of the room with books that Dream couldn’t remember anyone reading. The kitchen was implanted to the far side of it though. It branched off to a couple of steps that led off to the second floor with their respective rooms. Those weren’t used a whole lot considering how frequently they camp out on the couch.

George guided him over to it to let him sit down slowly onto the welcoming cushions. Dream felt the kneading paws claw into the fabric of his pants as Patches climbed over his leg and sit in his lap. He chuckled and ran a hand through her fur. He was feeling better already.

“Hey, girl,” he mumbled to her.

Patches purred and rubbed her head against Dream’s arm. The nausea and distorted vision had subsided mostly, being left with a clear image of his cat. The headache still festered in his head annoyingly, but there wasn’t much else he could do other than rest and wait it out.

It was his least favorite part about concussions. Bad had shooed them away on trusting them with the advice on how to treat it best. That of course was plain obvious. It didn’t mean that it hadn’t bothered the warrior in the slightest. Resting and sitting still in one spot for long wasn’t his go-to. His feet needed to move.

Being home though after going through unfamiliar territories was a comfort though. The table in front of him gave him an excuse to get comfortable, kicking his boots off and throwing his legs up. Dream dropped his head onto the head of the couch cushion and looked up at the wood ceiling.

The house was something they built a while ago. They first lived in a jungle in another realm, some type of Tarzan lifestyle coexisting the treehouse they made. It was a hard realization that they outgrew the house and needed new grounds. It was growing boring with hardly anyone around, and they definitely weren’t the kind of people to stay put in safety. Nor did they like being lonely.

This place was a lot more alive and didn’t even have it’s full limits explored yet. They were able to build the house they resided in currently a bit closer to the Spawn Portal. Of course, none of them were architecturally gifted, so it didn’t look the best in the world. Yet, it was theirs. Something they could really call home and stick to it wholeheartedly.

Dream tilted his head over to the other two. They were talking about something in a hushed manner. Their faces were contorted into something concerning that wasn’t that reassuring for him. 

“What’s wrong?” he frowned.

George’s head turned over to him and met his eyes. His hands were over his shoulders as his fingers fumbled into unbuttoning the cape around his back. Sapnap looked at him too, arms crossed in a tight stance. They both appeared upset.

“We uh...we’re probably going to have a few complications with manhunt for a couple of weeks,” Sapnap said.

Dream groaned. He completely forgot about them in the moment of the enderman fiasco. They got the diamonds to keep them sustained, but also to purchase vacant realms that could be used for activities they genuinely enjoy like racing to the end. When in ones that have a community, it’s just common courtesy to wait for a group to enter the portal together.

The unrelated issues with this realm and the strengthening enderman attacks, it’s becoming harder and harder to get out of Spawn without complications. It was only the thought of how deadly it could be inside the End could only be a terrible thought. The stronghold, usually an easy task to track and locate for the three of them, is now completely intimidating with the dangers in between it.

“Oh,” he muttered, hand trailing under Patches’ chin, “so I’m seriously bedridden.”

“Just about, yeah,” Sapnap sighed, “sorry.”

“Well, there’s really nothing to apologize for, if anything I should be thanking you guys. If you weren’t there I’d probably still be out there.”

George placed his cape next to their backpacks, letting the dark blue spill over the table. He began pulling things out of their bags that included the sacks of diamonds there were. Displaying them out onto the wood made them seem rich when it was just a hundred or so.

“Yeah, I guess it still kind of sucks though,” he said.

Diamonds weren’t that common which was why currency on things were mostly between three or four chunks. To discover more than five an hour was lucky, and ten becomes even more so. Replenishing their money once a month since they never trade or sell anything has become a routine.

Sapnap hummed thoughtfully, “Well, that potion Bad gave you is hopefully doing something.”

“Doesn’t feel like it, my head is still killing me,” Dream groaned as he placed the mask down on the table under the cat’s watchful eyes.

“Why don’t you get some sleep then?” George suggested, pulling out a chair from the table, “Me and Sapnap can try and get the value of the diamonds.”

He opened his mouth to say something, wanting to help them, but then decided against it. He really was tired and definitely didn’t think his head could handle any mathematics given to him. His body resigned to slide down the backside of the couch, laying his sore body across the width of it. Patches slipped out from under him and curled up in the crook of his abdomen.

His hair fell in front of his face to brush his nose and spill furthermore over the gray pillow. It was nice after being inside a sleeping bag that gave him an one inch of protection from the frozen ground. Now he was in the safety and embracing heat of his home, devoid of any imminent dangers.

Dream closed his eyes.  
______

It was difficult to remember what his mind had created while he slept. All he could grasp among it all was a vague sense of fog and mistful blackness that swarmed the edges of his vision. There was a splash of deceiving purple with a slice of something that reacted every nerve in his fingertips up through his hands and arms.

Then he was falling. Colliding through the blankness with his legs above him and his head upside down, staring at whatever inevitable that awaited him. It prolonged far longer than he could hope for, but Dream was able to pry from its glacial hold. He jolted awake on the couch and caught a glimpse of a startled Patches darting out from under him.

His feet rooted itself into the carpet as he tried to gain a hold on his surroundings. He breathed heavily and hunched forward to grab at the sides of his head. He let out a groan. The bandages complimented the rough underneath the calluses of his fingers. The sudden movement brought back the terrible headaches relentlessly echoing throughout his mind. There was also the bout of dizziness that had accompanied it as well.

It took a moment but it died down to a bearable level and Dream managed to look at the living room through the spreads of his fingers. Nothing had really changed other than the light of gold dripping through the window on the far left of the room. It expressed itself as a little after noon, possibly even close to one.

Dream sighed and let his hands fall into his lap. He looked over to the kitchen where his two friends previously were only to find them not there anymore. An array of carefully grouped blue chunks, a paper with chicken scratch imprinted on it, and a quill rested on top of it had replaced them.

“Sapnap?” he called out, “George?”

No response. He grabbed the coffee table and hauled himself up despite the screaming of every bone in his body saying no. There was another paper there right beside his mask that was smaller than the one on the kitchen table. The writing on this one was far more organized though, and had actual sentences.

‘Went out to help Ant douse his house with water. There should be something to eat in the icebox when you wake up. We’ll be back soon!! :) - George’

He scoffed and shook his head, which contradicted the small smile creeping up on his face. The burden of the interruption started to shake its gripping threads off of him. Dream put one foot in front of the other, shuffling into the kitchen to look at how much diamonds they had gotten off the trip.

He grabbed the back of one of the chairs accompanying the table and stared down at the mess. There were small particles of residue dirt and grains of stone that were littered in between the separated ores. The paper had scribbled writings of math equations and calculated numbers definitely that came from George. There was a finalized, circled number at the bottom of the page: “612”.

Dream backed away from the table and decided to give into his hunger. His brain zoned out as his feet moved around the kitchen, lime socks sliding on the tile. He assumed the assigned groups were the amount of money they held. If they were too small they weren’t worth much, if they were larger chunks they needed a gemologist’s opinion, and the other normal sizes were able to be estimated on their own. To make over six hundred coins was rewarding, especially with what happened after being in the caves.

He was opening a cabinet and looking through it when he realized there wasn’t any bread in it. Dream sighed and closed the door under the name of a long, unfriendly crack that spoke out of the spruce wood. There had to be some in the pantry out back.

Still being clumsy with his walking, he stumbled out of the kitchen into the small hallway just beside the stairs. It looked misleading with how unlit it was compared to the rest of the house. The tinted window at the end of it was the only source of light. Abstract paintings on the wall made up for it somewhat since it was Sapnap’s measly suggestion to keep the walls from being less barren.

The door on the right led him to open into a wall full of various abundances of sealed food. He scanned the shelves before reaching up to dig through them. There were a few decorations of cobwebs swabbed between the boxes, cans, and wraps. Someone must’ve forgotten their turn to clean up the house, but honestly, his fingers could very well be pointing right back at him. He found the loaf of bread behind a few tins of corn on the second shelf. He pulled it out, spinning the tied end between his fingers and shut the door again.

When he turned back towards the kitchen again, something shifted the already disturbing mood of the hallway. Mysterious and alarming. A disfigured, dancing shadow casted over the length of it, darkening it enough to believe it was night if he was told so. The hairs on the back of his neck and arms pricked, the feeling of somebody watching him plagued his body.

Then, there was the loud sound of something flapping, moving up and down similar to a bird’s wing. The warrior tilted his head over his shoulder to see through the glass pane.

He immediately wished he didn’t look out from it. His prediction of a bird was seriously underestimated.

Something a hundred times larger than the average bird blocked out the entirety of the sun that used to beam down on the earth only seconds before. It’s long tail lashed wind currents out of the sky. Black, corroded wings released a stream of terror through Dream. The man who’s already seen the creature a million times before. It brought a deathwish of long, slender figures in between the trees while it soared across the overworld. The place where it wasn’t even supposed to be.

He heard the very familiar sound of teleporting and a spark of violet on the other side of the window. He got out some sort of pitiful curse before an enderman blocked his field of vision. His eyes fell to the floor instantly to try and bore them into the cracks of the wood. while simultaneously dropping the bread, scrambling away from the window.

Dream dropped the bread and scrambled away from the window when he heard another enderman. It sounded impossibly closer than the one outside.

He just wanted a goddamn sandwich.


	5. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be published a day ago but it was my mom's birthday. Sorry about that y'all!

Dream didn’t know what to do. There was an enderman inside his house for god’s sake. Not only that, but a countless horde of them outside. He couldn’t go out there without risking the possibility of provoking one of them. Not only that, but there was no George or Sapnap to get him out this time.

He didn’t even know if the enderman inside was advancing on him. All he could think about was to just- get away. Get away from the windows and hide somewhere. He knew he certainly wasn’t in a good state to fight any of them. He could stow away somewhere in the house and wait for his friends to get back to fend them off. Then again, he’d be trapped if he hid.

Dream almost tripped and fell onto the floor. He was still so uncoordinated with his feet. His hand reached up and grabbed the doorway, swinging his feet around into the living room. He practically launched inside the kitchen onto the slippery tile that carried him to the knived woodblock that sat on the countertop. It was a fumble, but he managed to grip the handle of a knife and take a dangerous glance back towards the hallway.

A sharp breath escaped him. There was definitely one inside the house. It was hard to see the tall, inky black form but the particles drifting around it were very visible from where he stood. His hand tightened on his weapon.

Knives are the worst thing to fight an enderman with, he chided himself.

It was the best thing he got at the moment though. He had to use it until something happened so he could get out of this situation. This was such a mess. He just woke up to some of the most random things, didn’t he?

He just saw the enderdragon flying above his forest like it owned it for god’s sake. It dropped its army onto his land and departed without any sort of warning or greeting. Not that the dragon would even acknowledge him, of course it wouldn’t, but the fact that it had the audacity to emerge from its own territory into the overworld like that was stupid. Absolutely nuts.

The worst part was that he knew he wasn’t hallucinating or experiencing some sort of side effect of the concussion he was bearing. This was happening right this second. His house was getting raided right now.

“Okay..,” Dream breathed out, trying to assess what he could do.

He backed away to the window that was set just above the countertop. He tried looking out of it without making direct eye contact to the stirring mass of endermen eyes just seven feet off the ground. There were so many. If he left the house now he could risk getting a few of them aggravated onto him. Like what happened yesterday.

The enderman in the hallway made an eerie noise, reminding him that he wasn’t exactly safe inside the house either.

He tipped the blade of the knife up and turned his head back to the kitchen. There had to be something he could use, at least something that could help him. Dream scanned the table, the diamond chunks and piece of paper were still proudly displayed on top of it. Just underneath it though their bags had been set against the chair legs. He saw his own peeking just under Sapnap’s.

Radio, he thought.

Dream doved for the straps and yanked the zipper downwards. Inside revealed the contents that had yet to be put away in the house. As hee quickly rummaged through them he only prayed that George and Sapnap had their own radios on them. Maybe he could contact Ant too just in case. Hopefully they’d be able to answer in time.

The metal device he was looking for had brushed against the tips of his fingers. He grasped it and pulled it out of the sea of other items that it was buried under. It was a small, box-looking thing with a green tinted screen dented in the upper part of it. A few buttons on the sides and below the screen for letters, numbers, and the ability to turn it on or off. There was a small, stagnant antenna to send a signal to the nearest redstone tower.

The green illuminated his face when it turned on, almost blinding him. He squinted and focused on the new message that had been whispered to him in his inbox. It wasn’t from any of his friends. The sender was by the name of Pavati Huit.

Huit: ‘I hope this message finds you well. As the head moderator, I am requesting a cross-realm meeting with members of the moderation team on May 3rd. We will be gathering in the low-modded realm conference realm to go over topics such as the current End infestation, track of mob spawning rates, and a proposition with..’

Dream quickly skimmed over the message from her. May 3rd. That meeting was two days from now. He’ll worry about it if he’s still alive by then. He pulled up Sapnap’s contact first and began typing a hasty message with one hand, the other gripping the knife impossibly tighter.

Dream: ‘help. endermen are in the house. I can’t get out. they’re going to tear it apart’

It was short but got the point across. He sent the same thing to George and Ant with some shaky variations yet roughly the same message. Dream tucked his radio into his back pant pocket and pulled himself up with support of the table. He needed to hide somewhere and stake it out until then.

“You still over there?” he asked the enderman in the hallway.

Another inhumane sound responded to him, like it was teetering off its peaceful edge as Dream pushed. It was daring him to speak to it one more time. Probably a good idea to stop talking to the thing.

His hand grabbed the handle of one of the cabinets that were under the sink. It was his first idea, and even though it sucked, it was the best option he had right now. He crouched and opened it, trying to crawl in and fit all of his six foot body in the small, damp space. There were a few cellar foods and cleaning products that he kicked to the other side to make room for himself.

His back instanously started to hurt from curling over. Dream’s hair collected the surrounding static at the back of his head as it brushed against the top of the cabniet. He blindly reached for the door, pulling it shut and encasing him in darkness. The radio’s light had brightened it up an amount strong enough to catch the glint of the blade by his cheek.

His eyes remained on the screen for a few minutes before he got a response. He blinked at the new message to pop up under his own.

Sapnap: ‘we’re on our way. where are you in the house?’

He answered.

Dream: ‘under a cabinet in the kitchen. there’s one in the hallway and more outside. please be careful’

It took less for Sapnap to respond this time.

Sapnap: ‘stay in there. we’re taking Ant’s horses’

He didn’t answer, instead just sighed and dropped the radio between his knees. The house was in the middle of thick woods. The horses would struggle navigating through it. It’ll delay them more, but he just needed to be patient and wait now until his friends got here.

It couldn’t have been more than a couple minutes later when he began to hear nonreassuring cracks and rips that the house gifted as its own signature noise. It was like the support beams were being shredded like aged wallpaper. It was tearing apart. The endermen were tearing it apart.

Dream fidgeted with the radio in his hands as the noises grew louder and more frequent. The endermen were making themselves more prominent too with the sound of them teleporting various distances from him. He bit the inside of his cheek and tried to shove down his instinct to break out of the cabinet and run.

He was scared to open the door, really. He didn’t want to see his home torn to nothing but the earth it stood on. The three of them made this house with their own little hearts, and he was hearing it fall apart around him.

It was a few minutes more when a loud crash erupted from nothing just a few feet away from him. Followed behind that were a few very enraged endermen screeches that rang his ears. He groaned and dropped the radio again, pulling his hands to the sides of his head to block out the noise. The bell was back and it traveled through his eardrums inside the deepest parts of his head again.

It hurt. It hurt so much and it pissed him off. He couldn’t focus on anything else but the deafening cries and sounds of his home being torn into pieces around him. A shout. Dream barely felt the cabinet suddenly constrict. His body was being shoved down against the splintering wood. The door was squeaking open under the pressure. The roof had fallen. What he knew would happen.

He forced himself to breathe. He needed to stay calm, there was something else going on. The shout he heard was actually intelligible. It was a word- no, his name.

“Dream!”

That was George’s voice. It sounded a million miles away but it was still there and was definitely his. That was enough motivation for him to slam his hand against the edge of the cabinet door. It made a terrible sound as it scraped open across the tiled floor. He saw dust, planks of wood, furniture ripped up, glass shattered, and other damaged things in between long, dark-scaled tails.

“Mnngh, in here!” he risked shouting out into the destroyed house.

Another enderman screech, sounds of rushed conversation, footsteps, and a slice of light that lit up his knife as faulty gold. Dream wedged his arm in between the door and the frame that was being painted in a spiderweb of cracks from the pressure. He grabbed his radio and forced himself to tumble out of the space. The whole countertop collapsed in on itself behind him.

A hand grabbed his shoulder -thankfully a human one- and pulled him up to his feet. Dream scrambled for balance, turning around to meet Ant’s wide eyes. A blue bandana covered his mouth and his long, furry ears were pressed flat against the sides of his head in distress. His tail lashed behind him.

Dream opened his mouth to say something, any of the words that filtered through his mind a mile a minute currently. He was shoved down to his knees before he could really come up with anything. Ant’s shield quickly raised above his head before an ink black claw came down to take a swipe at it.

“Not quite the place I’d expect us to meet again,” Ant grunted.


	6. Chapter 5

He didn’t remember much from escaping the house. Ant had been obscuring a lot of his vision with the shield. He couldn’t tell when he went outside either. There was so much sunlight spilling in from holes in the walls. The one thing that he barely caught a glimpse of was Sapnap swiping Patches out from under the couch she was cowering under. He vaguely remembered him passing her into Dream’s arms as they mounted the horses. The amount of relief that struck through him when he firmly hugged the ball of acorn-colored fur was immeasurable.

When he set her down on the wood of Ant’s floor though, she scampered from him. She disappeared under one of the blankets that were draped over the chair planted next to the couch. He didn’t blame her, while he was riding double with Ant, she was twisting and turning against his chest. The situation must’ve been frightening, so he decided it was best to leave her alone for a couple of hours.

He fell asleep on the couch that day until sundown. The cushions were thin and definitely not as comforting as the one that was back at home, but that one probably didn’t even exist anymore. It was just a pile of wood supports and fluff underneath a pile of rubble.

No dreams allured him further into sleep this time, or at least ones that he could genuinely remember. It was just a void of darkness, something that his head needed after two days of near-death scenarios. He needed a break, but he still had to tell them about the dragon he saw. That was probably something important.

When he awoke, he was being gently shaken awake by a casual clothed George with a solemn expression on his face. He would’ve never guessed that his home got destroyed just a couple hours before that. He was good at keeping his expressions to himself and didn’t even need the aid of a mask to do that.

His mask-

Dream lazily blinked and looked up at his friend, giving him a rough voice, “What?”

“Dinner,” George nodded over to the general direction of Ant’s kitchen, “it’s steak and salad.”

The blond groaned, burying his head further into the pillow, “I’m not really hungry.”

“Too bad,” George pinched his shoulder.

Dream yelped and slapped his hand away. He took a moment to lay there and feel sorry for himself, wallowing in the loss of their house. He just wanted to go back and pretend that none of that ever even happened. That he could just leave and forget about it.

He was thankful for Ant’s generous hospitality in his home but it just wasn’t theirs. He didn’t know how long it’ll be until they found some other place to stay or be able to have time to build a new one. With the issue that was going on in the realm as of right now, it’s probably going to be awhile before they have somewhere to actually call their own. It was too dangerous.

They probably couldn’t afford anything close to a breathable, three-person home either. All the diamonds that got from their mining trip had been lost to the endermen. Not only that, but the bill they still needed to pay in three days was also looming upon them as well. They barely had enough now to spare anything. Now they’re in debt to Ant.

He yanked himself up to his feet with the help of George. His steady stance kept him grounded to the house. Dream rubbed the side of his head as he was led into the kitchen like a deadweight. The house was small, and the rooms were smaller, not meant for four people to be living in it. The kitchen didn’t even have enough room for a table unlike their’s. It was set on the outskirts of the living room.

Sapnap’s and Ant’s mumbling voices of soft conversation grew more coherent as they stepped through the doorway. The smell of cooked meat reminded him that he hadn’t eaten all day and that he was, in fact, very hungry. The last thing he remembered eating was the mutton that wasn’t even fully cooked. So, Ant’s incredible cooking was a little hard for him to resist.

“Hey guys,” Dream announced himself groggily.

Sapnap turned to look back at him from where he was pulling plates out of the cupboard. He gave him a smile that covered the worry glassing over his eyes. Ant’s tail twitched from behind him as he flicked the water off his hands into the sink. He grabbed a paper towel and also gifted him a smile, a canine peeking just under his lip. They both looked tired and worried, actually.

“Hey, how’re you feeling?” Sapnap asked him.

Dream took the two plates that were offered to him, passing one over to George, “Not much, I guess.”

Like shit. He felt like complete trash that had been strewn about like a ragdoll. What happened in the past couple of days was enough conflict to last him at least a couple months. He wanted a break now, something that didn’t require a lot of thinking or moving around. Just sleep. God, he couldn’t wait to go back to sleep.

For now though, he snagged a small piece of steak out of the pan and placed it on his plate. He snatched one of the bowls of salad on the countertop that had less content in it. The best he could get close to relaxing right now is eating enough food to satisfy his stomach. That sounded like a reasonable goal for the moment.

“Uh, did anyone get my mask from the house?” Dream asked while he walked back into the living room.

“I think it got destroyed or something, we didn’t see it anywhere when we got inside,” Sapnap’s voice answered.

He took a moment to think about the coffee table that he placed it on when he woke up from his nap. That was smashed to pieces in the unintelligible blur of him jumping out of the cabinet. His mask probably got ripped up in the process as well. It was another little jab at his pride.

“Oh.”

Dream sat down at the oval-shaped table. George accompanied him a moment later, sitting down in the chair besides him. He poked at the meat with his fork as a frown built up on the stress he was undergoing. His friend must’ve noticed.

“We can get someone to make you a new one. Or we could go buy another type of mask if you want. It’s up to you,” the brunette offered him a small smile.

He had that mask for as long as he could remember. It wasn’t exactly a lost and replaced kind of thing. That and they were on a budget to where they couldn’t go around buying things that weren’t desperately needed at the moment. All those diamonds and no chance that at least some had survived? No matter how painstaken it’d be, they had to go back either way.

“Actually,” Ant set his food down and himself on the chair across from the both of them, “I have another upstairs, remember? You told me to keep one here just in case anything happened to the original. I guess now would be the time to use it, heh.”

Dream looked up to him with confusion, “Wait, you still have the other one?”

“Of course I do, it’s in the guest bedroom. You can take it after dinner,” Ant took a bite of his salad.

Dream provided a smile that hopefully looked as appreciative as he felt, “Thank you.”

Ant waved his fork around dismissively as if saying ‘it’s not a big deal.’ Which he assumed it really wasn’t, it was his mask to begin with. He bought the thing and all of the renewable straps that continuously broke each year he had it. It was still upsetting that it was gone now though.

“Hey, um,” Dream dropped his fork into his salad when Sapnap joined them, “there’s something I really need to tell you guys. It’s also a lot so...”

Sapnap nodded, “You don’t need to ask for permisson, dude.”

“I saw an enderdragon.”

Okay, there could’ve been a less-blunt way to put that from the blank looks on his friend’s faces. They all blinked in random intervals and stared at him like he just committed the realm’s worst war crime to ever be recorded. Well, he guessed he had seen a war crime, but he definitely didn’t commit one.

“Wait, you-” Dream could see the words trying to cycle through Sapnap’s mind and out into the air, “you saw a-”

“An enderdragon. I know I wasn’t hallucinating or doing anything else weird. I mean, you saw the endstone outside the house, right? That- that was from the enderdragon. It was in the Overworld, I promise you.”

George glanced at Ant, “...how’s that even possible?”

“I don’t know, but what I saw was real. It was like it was pulling all the endermen along with it and just dumping them right by the house. I literally watched the ground turn to endstone when it flew over,” Dream rubbed the side of his head as he recalled the sight.

“Endstone too?” George asked.

“Yeah I-” he paused at how different his expression was compared to Sapnap’s. He bristled, “What? Why are you looking at me like that? You don’t believe me?”

George leaned back into his chair, “No, er- yes- shit- I mean, you do have a concussion, Dream. You just woke up and your head definitely isn’t at the best it can be right now.”

He stared at George in disbelief. His fingers curled tightly on the edge of the table as he looked over to the other two. They had dwelled into a similar resignation. Both of them avoided his gaze and continued to eat their food like they were content with that answer.  
“What if I told you I’m going to bring it up with the other moderators? I have a cross-realm meeting assigned in two days. Would someone who’s delusional go as far as that?” Dream pressured them.

Ant squeaked, “What? Wait, you can’t just propose something like that!”

“I can if the meeting is subjected to exactly something like that. I can get my radio and show you the message right now if that’s what you want,” he responded.

“Okay, Dream, we believe you,” Sapnap cut in, shooting not-so-discreet glares at Ant and George, “do you think you’ll be well enough to go to that, though? I’m sure Huit would understand if you stayed home.”

“I can’t. Not if something as serious as this happened. I mean, who knows. Maybe even one of the moderators received a report of something like this. Someone else could’ve seen an enderdragon since the last time we held a meeting.”

He carefully watched all of their reactions. They didn’t believe him. They didn’t believe him because of this stupid concussion he was enduring. He couldn’t even believe that. A scoff escaped him at the thought of something that ridiculous. He picked his fork back up to angrily prod the lettuce and stuff some in his mouth.

“I mean, maybe that’s where all the endstone is coming from. Have we actually gotten a lead source to it all?” Ant’s voice was quieter this time.

“No, we haven’t,” Dream confirmed.

The rest of dinner resided in silence after his outburst. There was a small part of him that squirmed in the awkwardness of it all and wished he didn’t say anything about the dragon. Then again, he knew what he saw, and what he saw was serious. It was going to be brought up sometime.

George and Sapnap had insisted him to take the guest bed upstairs, and honestly he didn’t complain. If he was given an actual bed over a couch he was going to take it. Patches must’ve also had enough with the furniture downstairs since she chased him up the steps.

The guest bedroom wasn’t big at all. There was a double sized bed and a vanity tucked away against the far wall. There was even his mask, like Ant promised, resting on the broad top of it. It looked brand new and untouched despite the amount of years it probably had on it.

Dream tugged his shirt off and slipped under the covers. The mattress wasn’t anything like his own but it was still soft. The cat leaped up onto the bed next to him and curled into his welcoming arm. He pulled her close and squeezed his eyes shut as tightly as possible, wishing sleep to come soon. She stayed with him all night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dream and Patches cuddles :)


	7. Chapter 6

The skies were crying today. Thick drops of water traced the edges of his mask and kissed the black inked smile. His hood shielded most of the rain from his hair and scarred skin. He was cleaned up well enough for an appropriate appearance for other people today.

It was the 3rd, the day of the moderation meeting. He managed to slip away from Ant’s house during the shadows of storm-filled clouds that covered the morning sun. They were warned that he was leaving the evening prior, but they weren't very happy about it. He decided the easiest way to go was to be early enough that they wouldn’t even be awake.

It was extremely cold for this time of year. His cloak, thin but flexible, barely held any warmth. He wasn’t looking forward to the meeting at all. He hardly ever looked forward to them. They were all just filled with aching arguments and getting nothing accomplished.

The moderation teams of other realms aren’t ever on good terms with each other, and when they are, it’s a miracle. Cross-realm meetings consist of relaying important information over the last month and then relying on favors to help one another out. None of it is done with goodness from the heart, there always has to be some payback or fee.

There were times Dream wished he didn’t take the spot of a moderator. It was too much work, too much stress, too much recognition, and not enough good-fortune out of it. The pay he got from it was great and was probably the only reason why he stayed, but it got difficult to continue sometimes.

The larger buildings of Spawn began to tower up all around him. People traveled on foot or on horse, sparing him a few passing glances. Others were routinely downing their precious buildings with water. There were other people in scrappy clothes and messy presences that he tried to steer clear of. Those kinds of people were growing in number everyday. They were barely able to stay afloat surviving in the realm. Spawn is their only safe place. It was too dangerous for them to wander outside the walls.

Dream knew that him, George, and Sapnap would be among their ranks if they weren’t talented and independent in their skills. If he didn’t catch the attention of Huit and have her recruit him after a spot opened up on the team, this would all be a different story. The three of them would be suffering in poverty alongside them.

They used to kill countless ender dragons in other realms in their free time. It was just to get materials and loot from the foreign cities. It was difficult residing in à realm that completely prohibited entrance into the End, but he understood why. It was a genuine safety hazard.

If the Overworld -already riddled with a mutated breed of endermen and now a supposed enderdragon- was this bad, the End could only be disastrous. In the last two years, the search for the stronghold had been thrown headfirst into a hiatus. Huit made the executive decision to punish anyone who held an ender eye in their possession or give them up to services. The sentence decided wasn’t even worth the fight of property, not even the bare minimum.

Spawn’s downtown was nothing but a festival year-long. Lights swung around corners of wood, brick, or stone buildings and cut through the misty fog that encased the town. The asphalt, imprinted with horse hooves, carriage wheels, and the current onslaught of rain was rough under his boots. Trees that were planted in cement cases separated the roads and sidewalks.

There were a couple of endermen as well just lurking under the shade of those trees and the underhangs of low buildings. He, along with others, knew well enough now to keep his head down and sift through forming crowds. It was easier to become less of a target for them. The iron golems, large, metal things with vines they wear like capes on their shoulders, occasionally keep them in check. Those creatures made downtown the safest area it could be from various mobs.

Life mostly stirred around the local nether portal, planted directly on top of the coordinates of 0’0. Every realm had one pre built, and it provided access to other realms inside the Nether. What made the dimension so special was because it was much faster and easier to walk than the overworld. The terrain and traveling was far different inside there.

Dream could see people drifting in and out of the purple swirls inside of the obsidian frame. Four guards were planted around it, standing proudly in their netherite armor and watching the receptionists as they made diamond transactions with people. His hand slipped into his pocket and pulled out the mod card he always kept in his backpack.

“Good morning,” he greeted one of the receptionists, Jordan, at the propped table. As he flashed the card to him, he noticed a sword gleaming in the rays of the morning sun sitting against his leg.

Jordan took the card and skimmed his eyes over it. Sunglasses were propped on his forehead while simultaneously bearing a black scruff that snaked around his jaw. He smiled politely and turned it back over to him, marking a tally into the journal beside him. 

“Morning, is there a meeting today with the team? I saw three others walk through here,” he said.

“Yeah, just a check-in with the other realms. Who knows what’s going to happen today,” he sighed, adjusting his new mask.

Jordan’s smile turned apologetic, “I’m sorry, how have things been going?”

“Fine,” he lied, “didn’t you get a pet slime a couple months ago? How’s she?”

“He, actually! I named him Jerry. He’s getting pretty big so I might have to move him into the backyard, heh. I’m not gonna keep you waiting listening to me about it, though. I’ll see you later?”

Dream nodded, “See you later.”

He brushed past the table towards the portal. The guards gave him a quick pat down, only finding a passable sword strapped to his belt, a water canteen, and his radio. One of them gestured behind them, confirming he could head through. He pushed through the mass of purple magic. It felt like walking into a waterfall of spewing mist without leaving behind residue in his clothes or hair.

His body always did a nauseating 180 degree turn on the sudden shift of temperatures despite how many times he’s transitioned dimensions before. It always gave him a momentary sickness. One minute he was staring at wet blades of grass and the next his eyes were tearing up from the heat intoxicating the air. The downside of the Nether was how sweltering hot it was.

The Nether Hub was a safe spot where people selled Nether-traveling items and somewhere calm to let your body adjust. More guards were stationed around here as well. It was a square overhang that shielded everyone from any potential ghasts with four different ways branching off from it. These pathways went for miles to other hubs, but were always filled with people walking to and from different realms.

Dream slipped out of the hub onto one of the more dangerous pathways. At least it took him away from the traders trying to sell things to him. It was a blackstone bridge built over a lake of broiling, popping lava. This was actually one of the shorter pathways, he was lucky this time to be a part of a realm that held this meeting close enough to his own hub. 

Crossing the lava lake only took a few minutes until it led to an open plateau of netherrack. On top of it was a town that looked a lot like a warped version of Downtown Spawn. Nobody who wasn’t born in the Nether could last long enough to live for more than a couple days in it before their body starts to suffer from the heat. Yet, it was a place for people who’ve been walking for far too long. Exploring for far too long.

Inside it consisted of a castle-like building made out of Nether materials. It was where all moderators of the low-modded district came together for meetings. It was called the Moderation Hub. A little on-the-nose name but it did the job.

Dream recognized some of the people congregating outside of the hub, and others that he’s only seen once or twice at the meetings. He didn’t quite bother to hang around long enough to start a conversation with them though, quickly moving past them and striding inside.

The cool air that hit his skin felt soothing, a break from the feverish air outside. The hub only consisted of one large room, a tangible contrast of quartz white and dark blackstone. Pillars resided on the sides of the room and extended up towards a white-tinted, window roof. A table sat in the center, surrounded by three rows of leveled chairs that circled around the room. People were sitting down in the empty seats and others lingered around the outside of the pillars.

The meeting was going to start soon. He found himself sitting in the first row, watching Huit flip through her folders and move her papers around. She was seated in one of the four seats at the table while chatting with the other moderation leaders. Tense chatting, actually. He could see how tight her jaw is and the sweat she was constantly wiping away from her forehead. She was struggling with last minute orders, he could tell.

“Dream!”

He looked to the left. Daniel was there with his blue sunglasses shaded over his eyes and all, pushing his way past multiple people to get to him. He bore a black tank top and his own water canteen in one hand. His shoes squeaked when he took the seat next to him. His hand clasped the blond’s shoulder and gently shook him.

“Hey, Dan. How’ve you been?” Dream smiled at him, happy to see a face he actually wanted to look at.

“Nothing much, how’s George and Sapnap?”

“Good,” he said as he lied to the second person this morning, “they’re great. You ready for this disaster of a show?”

Daniel chuckled and took a sip from his canteen, scanning the people piling into more chairs as they spoke, “Not really, but that’s nothing unusual.”

It took several more minutes before the meeting actually began. The moderation leaders patiently waited for everyone to finish their greetings and took their respective spots around the room. Once the room fell into a comfortable silence, the four at the table rose.

“Gentlepeople, please stand as the oath of the meeting is administered,” one of the leaders -Sky- called out.

Dream pulled the hood of his cloak down and untied it quickly. He wrapped the sleeves around his waist and rose from his chair along with everyone else. He caught Dan’s unique side-eye glance at him, his eyes exposed after pulling his sunglasses off of his face. He leaned away from the tingling stare.

“I, Sky Dahlberg, do solemnly swear to support, express, and defend my realm’s constitution. I will resign and listen to others and speak the whole truth when it is required of me. I will obey the orders of the other leaders and will enforce my own when I was first appointed to this status. Terminated.”

Huit, Nathan, and David all repeated the same variations of the oath. It wasn’t long until they were all sitting back in their seats or relaxing against the wall again. Daniel nudged his shoulder discreetly and leaned close to his ear.

“What happened to you?” he whispered.

Dream was mildly confused at that, giving his friend a look behind the mask. He only responded with a flickering glance to his hair. Reaching up to it self-consciously, he felt the sandpaper feel of the bandages that George had wrapped yesterday. He winced. Totally forgot about them.

“Uh,” he stuttered with loose lips, “head injury?”

He wanted to play it off like it wasn’t a big deal, but he could see how Daniel frowned. It felt like a father being worryingly disappointed in his kid, and the age gap they had was not helping the imagery. No other words escaped him though. Nathan started the meeting, a skinny man but the built body of a fighter and possibly a builder on the side. He was around Dream’s height as well.

“Huit, I think you should begin. You organized this check-up with the grand topic, I’m assuming?” he placed a hand under his chin.

Huit nodded, her sun-kissed skin shone a soft gold under the overhanging chandelier. She stood up from her chair gracefully and surveyed the room, calculating and assessing who she had to work with. Her dark strands of coiled hair spilled over her shoulders, covering the lot of her face from where Dream and Daniel sat. A thin line tangled her lips while sophisticated words came from in them.

“With honesty and humbled honor, I’ll say that my realm continues to suffer from the endermen surges that have entered our lands two years ago. The loss of a hundred and twenty residents sit on our shoulders as of current,” she said grimly.

“After we had made the decision to cut ourselves off from any foreigners, we have been struggling to adapt. We have recently encountered a new mutated breed, and they attack without provoking eye contact. They are stronger and congregate in maximum groups of five. We still remain with the lack of resources to fend them off any better than with water barriers.”

Huit gestured to her team sitting in their part of the hub, “A few moderators from my staff have reports of their own to cover. Jasmine, hereby that you’re present, please inaugurate with yours.”

A woman stood up in the second row, far off to the right side. Dream listened to the first few words of her speech before he ultimately tuned her out. His head fell against the back of the chair and his eyes closed orderly. She sounded distorted, like she was speaking through a tunnel, her peaks only repeating after her true words..

There was an understandable echo booming around the room because of the sheer mass that the place really was. Yet, he still felt like just letting his co-workers talk and get through the meeting. Why did he even come here again? He was never going to get the chance to speak.

Well, at least that was what he thought until a couple of reports later. A male, definitely younger than him, had a name he didn’t even catch. He was speaking barely loud enough for the fifty plus people around him when Dream fell back in with everyone. He had a nervous tremor in his voice and a fidget in his left hand. This was definitely one of his first reports at these meetings.

What he was talking about had stirred a buzzing reaction with everyone. They were talking inaudible words and sending looks at their friends. Even David and Nathan had a conflicting expression beginning to emerge on their faces.

“-dients have been confirming sightings of a winged creature roaming just on the outskirts of Spawn. As much as it sounds, we’re doubtful that what these people are seeing are..genuinely ‘The End Beast.’ We believe it has to do with mass hysteria according to the current state of our realm, which has taken a toll on us. We’re currently trying to provide these kinds of people professional he-”

This was it. This was what Dream was looking for. Oh, his friends were going to be so pissed at him once he told them what he did. He never stood up so quick before in his life. His eyes flashed dark spots across the board and his head reeled. His gloved hand shot up into the air.

“Interjection!”

The moderator stopped dead in his report. So did the people who were live reacting to him. All heads turned to him. What he really had his eyes on was Huit’s reaction dripping with confusion and warning. He blinked the fuzzy darkness away, watching it withdrawal back to the edges of his vision again.

“What are you doing?” Daniel hissed beside him. He grabbed his arm and tried to tug him back down into his seat again but Dream, unbothered, pushed his hand away.

Huit tilted her head to the right, “Dream? We didn’t confide a report for you to-”

“Apologies, ma’am, er- sir,” he acknowledged the kid, “but what you’re saying is inaccurate.”

The leader narrowed her eyes, “If you wanted to critique your co-workers you could have done so before the meeting, not in front of everyone.”

“No. He’s claiming it’s mass hysteria. It’s not! It’s nothing of the sort at all. I know it. I know it, ma’am!”

He felt the waves of the hesitant pause from her. Huit clearly seemed to be losing her temper with him, yet she still had a mild curiosity as to what he was going to say. He hardly ever spoke up in these things and considering when he did, her better judgement knew it must be important. Everyone was silent, and she nodded after a moment.

“I saw the enderdragon in our Overworld. I would know it because it’s fucking enderman battalion ripped my house into pieces!”

Daniel finally grabbed a firm hold of his arm and yanked him back down into his seat. It was too late though, the damage was already done. It wasn’t so silent anymore inside the Moderation Hub.


	8. Chapter 7

The people in the hub erupted into a flow of battered conversation. Hands shot up into the air either with fingers splayed or pointed at Dream accusingly. He caught a drift of some words calling him insane, should be kicked out of the meeting, or for everyone to shut up and allow him to talk. He agreed severely with the latter.

His elbow hit the back of the chair too hard when he fell back into it. He winced and shot a glare to Daniel, who had a similar expression glowering back at him. It was obvious that he wasn’t very happy by what just happened, but honestly he didn’t care all that much. It was the fate of the realm at this point.

“What are you even saying?!” Daniel hissed to him, his fingers still firmly wrapped in Dream’s short sleeve.

He opened his mouth to defend himself, but a strike of a gavel in the center of the room beat him to words. The noise died down to an agreeable level, or at least enough to distinguish which conversation from who’s. He could even hear two women behind him talking about the bandages, fully displayed, having to do with his interjection.

A bead of sweat slipped from his forehead to his cheek despite the cool air in the room. It tried to protect them all from the harsh Nether atmosphere outside. That, or his nerves were finally starting to sink deep into his pores. At least he was feeling something more than the dull headaches throbbing between his ears.

Huit’s expression would have looked unpredictable to the other moderators, but Dream had been around her long enough to know that she was pissed. Her lips were thinned into a neutral line and her chin was upturned, disapprovingly scanning him three times over. He didn’t know if it had to do with his uncalled profanity damaging her profession or just his interruption in general.

You gave me permission, he thought.

“Dream,” she smoothed herself out, “care to elaborate with a sense of dignity this time?”

He felt Daniel let go of him, his body jostling limply from the movement. His entire body dissolved into liquid as he realized just how many pairs of eyes were glued onto his skin. He shrunk back inside his mask to get away from the attention he managed to round for himself. The worst of the moment died, and now he understood just how deep of a hole he slipped into.

Dream watched her cast a nervous glance over to the other realm leaders. They seemed annoyed and probably were wishing for Huit to control her rouge moderators slightly better. He tried ignoring them, crossing his arms to seem unbothered. 

“There’s nothing more for me to say, I saw a dragon destroy my house. It’s not...illusions, the thing is real. Besides, wouldn’t it be too much of a coincidence if they all hallucinated the same thing?”

“Who’s this?” David narrowed his eyes.

“One of my intermediate moderators,” Huit spoke through gritted teeth, “why didn’t you report the situation as soon as it happened? You obviously saw my announcement on your chatbox.”

“I don’t think the first thing you’d be doing after you lose your house is to tell everyone about it. I was planning to tell you this meeting, and clearly this is an important topic if an enderdragon is this close to our Spawn. Isn’t this even slightly concerning if it even was fake or not?”

The exasperated woman took a few seconds to breathe, then leaned back in her chair. She looked far more composed, which was a thing that Dream always admired about her. She was able to hide her emotions well without a mask, or at least a physical one. There was one last sweep of him before she gestured for him to rise. Dream sighed and stood up, his peripheral vision catching Daniel squirming uncomfortably in his seat.

“Ma’am, I-”

“What do you suggest we do about this then?” Huit crossed her arms.

Honestly, he didn’t really consider that when he spoke. Their realm was weak, the whole district was in a terrible state due to their lack of modded weapons and defenses. The endermen raids had already crawled into their inner walls and ripped them apart on the inside. It was like they were digging their grave underneath the realm’s own flesh and blood.

This problem was a problem meant to be solved by higher modded districts, something that could actually have some form of resistance against it. The issue was, traveling to those districts would be such a long journey, and a dangerous one at that. Some parts of the Nether didn’t even have built walkways or bridges just because the risk was far too high. They were so far that even the redstone, the backbone of all radios, couldn’t stretch the signal out long enough for them to reach other people outside their own district. They couldn’t call for help.

Besides, why trek across the Nether when there were experienced people inside their own realm. Those same people who had slain dragons for fun in unused, solitary realms that weren’t apart of districts to just gain a sense of thriller. Those same people who knew how to work with each other well and could execute a mission that they’ve done countless times before as enjoyment. 

It was just a dragon, wasn’t it?

“Well, I’m one of the few people in this district who’ve actually fought and defeated enderdragons befo-”

“No,” Nathan cut him off immediately, then waved to Huit, “my apologies for governing your mods, Huit, but this one is clearly out of his mind. Taking on an enderdragon by himself? What kind of lunacy do you indulge into in your spare time to think that?”

Voices of various emotions and opinions grew amidst the hub again. People who he could see were either frozen in their seats, staring at him with wide eyes, or trying to appear disinterested with only the slight flickering of glances to tell Dream otherwise. They all just wanted this to wrap up and go home. Even Daniel had a like-minded uncertainty growing on his face. They all thought he wasn’t thinking straight like Ant, George, and Sapnap did. It was extremely annoying.

“You didn’t let me finish,” Dream snapped. “Of course not by myself, I have two friends that helped me kill those previous dragons, what makes this so different? It’s just in a different environment than it’s usually in, so if anything we have the advantage, right? Sapnap and George, they’re great at weaponry and know tricks like I do. All we might need is some resources provided from you, that’s it.”

He felt it was a little bit unfair dragging his friends into this without telling them, but he knew them. He knew George and Sapnap wouldn’t hesitate for any opportunity to end this two year war. They’d also bite at any chance of adventure, especially with an end goal in mind.

Yet, Huit was already shaking her head before he even stopped speaking, “Dream, you know I can’t just send my moderators out like that. Your place is right here, leading your realm. I understand a little bit about your warrior complex and I respect that, but if you die out there, that’s on me. As a member of my team, you’re my responsibility.”

He groaned in frustration, grabbing the sides of his mask and roughly adjusting it to match the square of his face. The straps felt way too loose around his head since he didn’t properly fit it before he left Ant’s house. If it was any tighter though it’ll coax the headaches into something stronger. Half of the distant throbbing wasn’t even from his concussion at this point.

“So, we let an enderdragon terrorize our residents. We can’t get outside aid because we haven’t contacted anyone past our district in what? Five years? Would they even be willing to support us? You can only send in people who are willing to fend off the endermen, and even then it’s not enough!”

Dream knew that challenging the realm leaders probably wasn’t the best idea he had. It was basically a way of asking to get kicked out of the meeting and face further consequences without doing so directly. Among those consequences included the chance to get permanently banned off the moderation team.

He continued, “The three of you have prohibited ender eyes as well. You’re preventing people from finding the stronghold because you fear that the surges happening to us are going to happen to your realms! We have let this shamefully become beyond us, and from what I saw, it looked like that dragon was pulling a whole enderman army along with it. Not only that, but the endstone we’ve been finding all over the realm lately appears like it’s coming from the dragon.”

“I know we don’t have a solution to this issue, but this seems to be the only lead we have at the moment. Me, George, and Sapnap follow the endstone, kill the dragon, and then we continue from there. If it kills the surges then great, if not, then we at least limited a possibility. And...if I do die, I can easily be replaced on the team, ma’am. I don’t have much to come back for here, like I said, my home has been destroyed.”

Huit’s autumn forest eyes had been slowly trailing up from the floor to a point above his mask. He felt scrutinized under her wistful, intense self. He was expecting some form of greater argument compared to his, as if it would force the hub to make their opinions on the topic known vocally. 

Yet, she did though was shift in her seat and ask:

“Did you sustain a head injury recently?”

Dream practically deflated at the response. That was it, any mention of an injury and he was out. He should’ve pulled his cloak on and slid the hood back up. He was breathing cool air, but it felt like the Nether air outside was seeping through the cracks of the windows above. The amount of sweat that had clung to his skin while he was speaking was almost irritating.

“Yes,” he breathed out, “but it was minor, nothing t-”

Huit waved the two guards over that had been stationed on both sides of the exit, “Then you shouldn’t be in here. I’m sorry, Dream, but my final statement on this matter is no. Just because you’re replaceable doesn’t mean I’ll be able to find someone else exactly like you. I’m not certain if it’s the head injury speaking or you, but what you’re telling me is that you are willing to throw your job and life aside. As a result, I’m stripping you from your responsibilities until you heal fully. I’ll contact you to talk about this when your suspension is up. Escort him back to our Nether Hub.”

The level of burning hot shame he felt when the two guards offered their hands to him was unbearable. Dream scoffed and slapped their hands away as they tried to touch him. He was thankful for his mask to hide his face, but he was sure that the embarrassment he felt was showing.

He barely gave Daniel a passing glance while he slipped by him out of the row of seats. He was glad for one of the other realm leaders to start talking about a new topic as he walked out. He didn’t even want to see if the other people were even paying attention to him or not. He occupied himself by buttoning his cloak back on even if it was going to just get hotter outside the Moderation Hub.

The emotions passing through Dream had an intense variety to them. The most prominent one was anger. Anger at Huit for not giving him permission, anger at his friends for being right, and mostly anger at himself because he wasn’t convincing enough for them. This didn’t mean that the whole idea of killing the dragon was off the table, though. It just meant that they had less of a public platform about it and...might have to do things a little less legally.

If anything, it was just an obstacle to try and barrel through.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow @frightened_stars on Instagram for more Endstream and DreamSMP content.


End file.
